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Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg delivers a keynote address at a Facebook's marketing event in February 2012.

IBM recently named Virginia Rometty as its the first female CEO, and Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg is on her way to becoming one of the richest women in technology when the company goes public.

But despite these noteworthy feats by these female leaders, the number of women chief information officers at U.S. corporations has declined for the second year in a row. It hit less than 10 percent this year, and about one-third of CIOs report they have no women in management positions working for them, according to a survey released Monday by Harvey Nash, a recruiting firm.

“There’s an overall skill set shortage in U.S., across men and women, as far as the IT space,” said Anna Frazzetto, Senior Vice President of Technology Solutions, Harvey Nash USA. But, she added, this has become even more pronounced among women, creating a growing underrepresentation problem for women in technology.

A number of factors are contributing to the dearth of women, she said, including that the industry isn’t thought of as the most social or exciting out there, and that not enough young women are choosing to study technology when they go to college.

Discrimination and preconceived notions about women’s commitment to their jobs also is contributing to the problem, she added.

The lack-of-women dilemma isn’t just a corner office issue. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women comprised only 25 percent of all computer-related occupations last year, pointed out Jenny Slade, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Women represented about 25 percent of computer and information systems managers; 38.6 percent of web developers, and 19 percent of software developers. 

Have you and your spouse ever competed for the same job?

In 2011, women made up only about 18 percent of those getting bachelor's degrees in computer and information sciences, a percentage that's held steady for the past four years, she said.

“Unconscious bias” against women in IT is a big problem, she said, and “women don’t always know what the trajectory is to obtain a leadership role.”

A study done by the Center in 2010 found that “56 percent of women in technology leave their employers at the mid-level point in their careers.”

There are a number of factors causing women to leave, said Slade, but the top reasons were bad relationships with supervisors; feeling they were not on the fast track to promotion; feeling they don’t get credit for their work and a hostile work environment.

One women who made it to the top of the IT biz is Patricia Andersen CIO at Apartments.com. She said she was lucky to have worked for companies in her career, including Waste Management, that didn’t discriminate against women when it came to women and technology roles.

“I really haven’t worked at a place where gender was an issue in moving up,” she explained.

Apartments.com, she added, is looking to get even more women in management and one focus of the strategy will be mentoring.

“I’ve had several mentors through my life,” she noted. The mentors helped her learn one of the most important skills you need when it comes to climbing the ladder of success, she said, “how to handle political situations.” 

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

What from the "Don't be stupid on social media" school of philosophy do you not understand yet? In case there's any doubt about what you should or shouldn't be saying or doing on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, business psychologists from the U.K. are happy to let you know that those sites are being scoured for dirt or anything else that could trip you up with an employer, potential or existing.

The psychologists, part of a group called OPP, presented its findings at a recent conference on occupational psychology. "When applying for a new job, candidates spend hours pulling together a targeted, convincing and professional-looking CV to secure that interview. But what if your potential employer is not noticing your impeccable spelling and beautifully formatted covering letter, but instead raising an eyebrow at your flippant comments, risqué photos and questionable ‘check-ins’ on Facebook?" OPP says.

The organization surveyed 1,000 people in the U.K. and Ireland, and found:

56 percent of respondents said that they were likely to check out the social media presence of potential employees (although 27 percent of those surveyed said they would be uncomfortable with the same being done to them). On the flipside, 37 percent of people said they change their persona online — so looking at their online presence may be misleading anyway.

Think it's just Facebook or Twitter shenanigans that can get you off someone's list of potential hires? What if you say on LinkedIn that you're interested in "career opportunities" — LinkedIn offers you a check box for that if you want it — even though you're already working somewhere?

OPP notes a real-life case about that in Britain. As reported in The Telegraph, John Flexman "is thought to be the first person in the country to bring a case for constructive dismissal after a dispute with bosses" over his LinkedIn profile:

Mr Flexman is claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds from BG Group, a major gas exploration firm based in Reading, Berks, where he earned a £68,000 salary in charge of graduate recruitment.

As well as loading his CV onto the site, Mr Flexman ticked a box to register an interest in “career opportunities."

Says OPP: "For jobseekers, some pretty common-sense advice applies: Lock down your Facebook profile, and behave on LinkedIn as you would at a professional networking event (without the free bar!)"

Related stories:

• Will Facebook Actions make Timeline mandatory?
• Study: Checking smartphones increases stress
• Prediction: 500 million Twitter accounts by mid-February

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